ad:tech India: Facebook session remains the highlight of the event

In the opening session of Day Two of the ad:tech India David Fischer, VP, Advertising and Global Operations, Facebook enthralled the audience with the lesser known facts about the social networking giant on an early morning at Leela Kempinski, Gurgaon.

He took off his presentation with an élan of the social networking site registering a rock-solid number of 25 million active users over the last one year in the country. Then he ran through the two decades old history of the internet and how today, the web is being rebuilt around people.

“Facebook takes from the ‘what’ to ‘who’. Directories like Yahoo came in much ago, but this information wasn’t personalised,” said Fischer.

Going forward, Fischer flashed light on the Indian market statistics vis-a vis the US market. He mentioned in his presentation that almost two-third of the Indian population is under the age of 35. Out of which on an average, people spend around three hours on facebook alone wherein the number escalates up to seven hours in the US.

“Our Mission at facebook is to build the social graph,” said Fischer. He supported the statement by stating that around 15 million friend connections are made every day on the site, while the number goes to 50 million connections in case of brands.

He also cited various cases where the brands have leveraged through the facebook platform. The first one was a unique campaign propagated by David Mathews, from San Antonio, Texas, in support of his favourite 89 year old American actress named Betty white. He created a Facebook group in December — “Betty White to Host SNL (please?)!”. till then, the page has crossed over 375,000 members, besides the actress hosting the show.

The second example bought in the light was a campaign done by American Express to target the SME segment. The company managed to experience a 27% upward swing in their actual volume of business over a period pf three weeks after running the campaign.

The third engaging example given by Fischer was of the sportswear giant- Nike. The company uploaded a three minute video under the campaign – ‘write the future’ on facebook, right before the world cup in 20 different markets. And although, ADDIDAS was the official sponsor of the World cup, Nike on the other hand garnered a response of 6400,000 video plays and 169,00,000 impressions through the campaign.

He also mentioned that even in India how brands like Times of India and ESPN have integrated facebook for its stories and cricket information.

As a closing node to his presentation Fischer shared facebook agenda in the future as he explained, “We try to understand the marketing adjectives and that in turn increases the virtual circle. And you will see more social ads on facebook and we will also introduce sponsored stories.”